CI Network New Zealand

For this project my brief was pretty open but I had to include graphic elements from the Crime and Investigation network’s existing identity along with key words and footage from various ci programs. The channel tagline was “look closer” so I decided to use glass panels similar to the glass slides one uses to examine specimens under a microscope.

After extensive testing in Cinema 4D I decided to create a single hero plate and then duplicate that in After Effects. I would have loved to do all the animation in Cinema 4D but there wasn’t time. The main vision base was cut to an audio track which I then used to get the timing for the camera moves. All of the movement is done using the After Effects’ camera. Depth of field is used throughout to push and pull focus onto the main hero panel.

The background is a combination of an existing ci background and Fractal Noise. The color grade was done using the Curves effect and Add Grain was used over the whole thing via an adjustment layer to help integrate all of the elements and to give the spot a more filmic look. Prior to the final render the project was set to float to minimize banding and blow out the whites while leaving subtle details intact.

The comparison movie will give you a clear idea of what the base edit for this spot looks like. You’ll notice that some of the shots in the final spot differ from the edit. In those cases I replaced shots with others that I felt worked better, particularly some of the darker shots. Also notice that much of the vision is poor quality; to clean it up I used the Remove Grain effect as well as tweaking the contrast of many shots for consistency and clarity.

Thanks. I had about a week’s planning time in which I prepared example frames, created my glass material, received the base edit etc. The work in AE took a week (about 8 hours a day). Working with this many layers and using depth of field can slow things down.

Hey John, I’m fairly good at AE but are looking to get up to speed on some 3D software. I’m familar with Invigorator and the like but I’m really tossing up between Lightwave and Cinema 4D, is there one tool or program that you prefer or find easier to use – I for one don’t have tons of 3D experience. Thanks in advance.

I haven’t used Lightwave but have been enjoying getting up to speed with Cinema 4D. It has a great reputation for ease of use and is very approachable for beginners. It is also well integrated with After Effects.

The basic audio was given to me with the base edit. I then decided how many “moves” I wanted based on edit points/audio cues. So I matched my graphics to the audio, not the other way around. However, once I had finished the graphics the audio was again adjusted (certain swooshes and other sound effects were added) to enhance the moves.

The whole thing can be broken down to about 10 moves. I did single moves in some precomps and multiple moves in others then placed each of the precomps into a main comp where I added flashes between some of the transitions. The whole spot was created in After Effects CS3 but could have been done in AE 7. When you do the main vision edit first (with the base audio) that drives the whole animation and allows you to synchronise the camera moves. I used the exact same camera rig as the Fox Classics spot. Do a search and you can download the project file the rig.

Hey John,
Amazing job as always… how can you do the sound matching with the footage so precise without using an editig program? I was doing a job last week and I had to use Final Cut because whith AE was impossible (for me)
Thanks!

AE has a number of features for zeroing in on audio tracks including audio scrubbing (hold down Command or Control and move the Current Time Indicator) which I use all the time to find the exact moment I want a move to start. I’m going to do a more detailed breakdown of this job sometime soon.

Its Great work. John ! Tell please how you Synchronize visual effects & all video with audio in this promo movie ? Do you using an Video Editing Program or……….all work will created in After Effects ? And what version of After Effects you use 7.0 or CS3………Thanks very mach for answer

Great job there. Could you explain how you set this comp? Are the comps all set in 3D space and the camera just move between them? How you put the videos on the glass plates? i guess you did them in Cinema 4D but then how you add the videos? It would be great to see this project in details.

No expressions used for depth of field, just keyframes for “Focus Distance”. The main vision edit is the edited footage that the client gave me – it is always visible in each shot and drives the pace of the spot.

Awesome! Nothing more to say… 😉 I would be interrested in what the “edited footage that the client gave me” looked like. This would be an awesome example of what your work flow was on this project. I was working on something for a pharmaceutical client where I wanted to achiev a very similar look, but failed badly because the whole project was unorganised from day one and me and my co-worker (he did the editing) are very unhappy with the result…

John,
Do I have the right file? All I am getting is the anchor point popping up when I press AA. In the camera setup project there is a comp ‘MAIN’ with 2 layers: a “Master Controller’ null layer and a nested ‘cube_precomp” layer. The “Master Controller’ null layer has a Camera listed under effects with no camera options. What am I doing wrong?

Hi Klas, it’s amazing what you can do when the client supplies a music track from the start of the project. I’ll be posting another tutorial today that uses the music to drive the animation via Trapcode Soundkeys. Best wishes, John.

Hey JD, fantastic job as usual! I have a question though. I am a LightWave artist but you mentioned C4D has better integration w/ AE. I need to know how easy is it to port C4D animations over to AE before I invest my time and money. Any clues? Thanks in advance!!

hey john, this is very cool. and im from new zealand, this threw me abit, how does new zealand play into this? i dont have sky tv, maybe thats it. oh and i have a job interview tomorrow for an editing job. thanks bod 😉

Hi Manuel, I use a now extinct application for mac named VisualHub . I compress to H264 then open the movie in Quicktime, resave it as a .mov, then rename the .mov to .flv (simple!). If anyone knows of a good replacement for VisualHub I’m all ears! 🙂 Best, John.

hey john .. can tell us more about the palte setup .. what kind of lights you used .. have you used any kind of an hdr image..
because i was sturgling with c4d in the past few days to get a nice looking glass plate as in your project ..and i’v even dowloaded the glass textures that you menshined but it seems imposibble for me to do it..
thanks ..